//ir 


T. 


vs 


Missionary  Life  ♦ 


♦ ♦ in  Japan^ 


By  Cyrus  A.  Clark. 


Reprint  from  the  Oberlin  Review, 
April  22,  1896. 


oberlin: 

1896. 


1896. 

PEARCE  & RANDOLPH. 


OBERLIN,  0. 


Missionary  Life  in  Japan. 


Dear  Oberlin  Frie?ids  : 

Now  that  one  chapter  of  the  missionary 
life  of  your  missionary  has  closed,  it  is  not 
unfitting  that  he  recall,  with  you,  some  of 
the  events  which  make  up  that  chapter. 

It  was  eight  years  ago  the  loth  of  Septem- 
ber— how  short  the  years  have  seemed  ! — 
thas  we  sailed  out  of  the  Golden  Gate  to- 
ward the  sunset.  I must  omit  the  nineteen 
days  of — to  me — purgatory  and  other  inter- 
esting things  between  San  Francisco  and  Yo- 
kohama ; also  the  seventeen  days,  packed 
full  of  things  marvellous  to  our  new  eyes 
and  ears  between  Yokohama  and  Kuma- 
moto. 

LOCATION  AT  KUMAMOTO. 

Kumamoto  is  the  central  city  of  western 
Kiyushu.  It  had  just  been  made  one  of  the 
stations  of  the  American  Board’s  mission  in 
Japan,  and  we  had  been  appointed  one  of 
the  three  families  of  the  new  station.  The 
others  were  Rev.  O.  H.  Gulick  — Mrs. 
Glark’s  uncle  and  one  of  the  oldest  mission- 
aries in  Japan,  Rev.  and  Mrs.  Sidney  L.  Gu- 
lick, and  Miss  Martha  Clark.  Thus  it  was 
a sort  of  family  station. 

It  was  October  17,  1887,  that  we,  in  com- 


4 


pany  with  Rev.  and  Mrs.  O.  H.  Gulick, 
reached  our  station.  The  others  arrived 
later,  about  Christmas  time. 

This  was  before  .the  reaction  against  the 
rage  for  things  foreign,  which  had  given  Ja- 
pan the  choicest  of  the  good  things—  and 
some  of  the  worst — of  other  nations,  had 
begun,  and  we  were  welcomed  most  cor- 
dially. 

There  was  a little  company  of  Kumiai 
(congregational)  Christians  in  the  city,  a 
boys’  school  had  been  started  a few  months 
before  under  the  auspices  of  these  Chris- 
tians, and  a girls’  school  was  begun  a little 
later. 

LANGUAGE  STUDY  AND  TEACHING. 

We  understood  that  our  main  work  for 
three  or  four  years  was  to  learn  the  Japan- 
ese language,  and  to  this  unpoetic  and  unin- 
spiring work  the  best  of  our  time  and 
strength  had  to  be  given.  But  the  schools 
were  waiting  our  coming  for  English  teach- 
ing, and  took  from  ten  to  twenty  hours  a 
week  of  my  time.  I had  also  private  classes, 
afternoon  or  evening  as  suited  the  conven- 
ience of  the  class,  in  English  and  Bible 
study,  composed  of  students  from  other 
schools,  policemen,  soldiers,  and  others. 
Most  of  them  came  for  English,  to  be  sure, 
but  yet  they  got  something  of  the  Bible  and 
such  other  help  in  the  knowledge  of  Chris- 
tianity as  we,  in  our  semi-deaf-and-dumb 
condition,  could  give.  We  have  seen  some 


s 


of  these  seekers  after  English  become  true 
seekers  after  God  and  earnest  Christians. 
But  most  of  them  have  been  lost  sight  of 
and  only  God  knows  how  much  of  this  indi- 
rect work  will  result  in  their  salvation.  I 
know  that  we  have  sometimes  met  with  men 
whose  first  impulse  Christward,  culminating 
years  after  and  far  away  in  saving  faith,  was 
received  in  just  such  classes  as  ours  at  Ku- 
mamoto. The  influence  of  the  schools  at 
that  time  was  wholly  and  strongly  Christian, 
and  we  were  able  to  miake  our  influence 
count  there  and  in  connection  with  the  local 
church  work. 

We,  beginners,  did  comparatively  little  of 
public  speaking  during  those  four  years  at 
Kumamoto,  and  what  was  done  had  to  be 
done  through  interpreters.  Only  one  or  two 
addresses  were  given  in  Japanese  by  me. 

KUMAMOTO  HOUSE. 

During  our  four  years  in  Kumamoto  we 
lived  in  a Japanese  house  with  its  thin  paper 
walls  and  partitions  and  consequent  abun- 
dance of  fresh  breeziness  and  winter  cold- 
ness. Here  every  Sunday  the  children  of 
the  neighborhood  were  gathered  in  a Sun- 
day-school, fifty  or  so  of  them.  Here  hours 
were  spent  with  ordinary  visitors.  Here 
every  New  Year’s  time  the  house  was  filled 
from  morning  till  night  with  callers.  Here 
were  held  frequent  school  and  church  gath- 
erings. Here  we  had  our  turn  in  entertain- 


6 


ing  the  weekly  station  supper  and  prayer 
and  business  meeting.  Here  were  passed 
the  long  hours  of  struggle  with  the  Japanese 
language.  Here  was  our  home,  among  the 
Japanese  houses  so  very  few  of  them  really 
homes.  We  tried  to  do  our  full  share  of  the 
station  work.  So  did  the  others.  And  we 
all  rejoiced  together  in  seeing  the  signs  of 
progress  in  getting  the  language  and  in  the 
general  work  of  the  station. 

DIVISION  OF  THE  KUMAMOTO  FIELD. 

The  field  of  the  Kumamoto  station  includ- 
ed both  east  and  west  Kiyushu,  a field  far 
too  large  to  be  adequately  cared  for  by  the 
one  touring  missionary  of  the  station.  The 
east  and  west  sides  are  separted  by  ranges  of 
mountains  hard  to  pass  and  only  one  or 
two  short  visits  a year  to  the  east  side  could 
be  made  from  Kumamoto,  so  a division  of 
the  field  seemed  necessary.  The  people  on 
the  east  side  asked,  with  great  unanimity 
and  earnestness,  from  us  personally  and  from 
the  mission  and  from  Boston  direct  that  we 
come  over  to  the  east  side  and  locate  at  Mi- 
yazaki. The  mission  hesitated  because  we 
would  have  to  be  alone  on  that  side  and  150 
miles  from  any  other  foreigners.  But  Mrs. 
Clark’s  mother  had  just  come  to  Japan  and 
could  be  with  us,  and  thus  the  loneliness 
would  be  relieved  somewhat.  It  was  decid- 
ed that  we  give  it  a trial  for  one  year.  So 


7 


when  that  year  was  up  we  were  permanently 
located  there. 

REMOVAL  TO  MIYAZAKI. 

The  finding  and  fitting  up  a house  in  Mi- 
yazaki. the  packing  up  and  good-byes  at  Ku- 
mamoto, and  the  moving  delayed  our  arri- 
val in  our  new  field  until  December.  This 
was  in  1891. 

THE  HIYUGA  FIELD. 

Hiyuga  comprises  a territory  fifty  miles 
wide  and  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  long, 
occupying  the  center  of  the  east  coast  of 
Kiyushu.  Miyazaki  is  its  capital,  and  it  was 
here  we  had  our  home. 

Our  welcome  to  Hiyuga  was  as  cordial  as 
our  invitation  to  come  had  been,  and  our 
relations  with  our  Hiyuga  people  have  been 
only  cordially  friendly  during  our  four  years 
with  them.  The  anti-foreign  and  anti-mis- 
sionary sentiment,  so  uncomfortably  shown 
in  some  other  parts  of  Japan,  we  have  felt 
very  little  in  our  East  Kiyushu  field. 

The  work  of  the  province  has  been  quite 
pioneer  work.  What  little  had  previously 
been  done  was  almost  wholly  Kumiai  (con- 
gregational) work,  and  we  had  the  province, 
with  its  400,000  and  more  of  people,  almost 
wholly  to  ourselves.  All  the  Kumiai  Chris- 
tians of  the  province  had  been  organized  in- 
to one  church,  known  as  the  Hiyuga  church, 
with  a division  of  the  church  in  three  differ- 
ent towns,  in  two  of  which  evangelists  were 


located.  We  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  these 
increase  to  six  in  the  six  most  important 
cities,  each  with  its  increasing  group  of 
Christians  and  seekers,  and  one  church 
building  completed  and  another  arranged 
for,  to  be  built  this  spring.  Other  places 
have  become  ready  for  evangelists  ; but  the 
condition  of  the  Board’s  treasury  has  for- 
bidden further  increase. 

TOURING  WORK. 

I have  made  my  main  work  during  these 
four  years  in  Hiyuga  tou7'vig  work.  ' This 
touring  work  consists — 

1.  In  visiting  as  often  as  possible  the 
places  where  evangelists  are  located,  helping 
them  in  meetings  in  their  fields,  advising 
with  them  in  regard  to  their  work,  making 
calls  with  them,  keeping  sympathetically 
close  to  them  in  their  personal  lives,  and  in 
touch  with  their  whole  work. 

2.  In  visiting  the  homes  (with  my  good 
Japanese  helper),  holding  public  meetings 
and  doing  personal  work  in  places  where 
there  is  no  evangelist  and  where  the  gospel 
message  has  not  yet  been  heard  ; and  such 
places  are  still  very  many  in  our  field.  This 
touring  work  seems  to  me  to  be  far  the  most 
important  work  of  the  missionary,  and,  to 
me,  it  is  far  the  pleasantest  work  I have  had 
to  do. 

THE  BICYCLE  A HELP. 

I have  found  my  bicycle  a great  help  in 


9 


this  touring,  enabling  me  to  do  at  least  a 
third  more  than  I could  have  done  without 
it.  For  instance  : One  of  my  regular  week- 
ly trips  for  several  months  was  : an  after- 
dinner  ride  of  45  miles  to  Hososhima,  reach- 
ing there  in  time  for  an  evening  of  English 
teaching,  followed  by  a Bible  class  and  talk 
on  Christian  themes.  Returning  next  day 
over  the  same  route  I had  five  classes  of 
about  two  hours  each,  at  as  many  different 
places,  from  three  to  ten  miles  apart,  the 
first  from  6 to  8 a.  m.,  the  last  in  the  even- 
ing, after  which  I returned  the  remaining 
seven  miles  home.  Such  a trip  was  made 
possible  only  with  the  bicycle. 

ENGLISH  TEACHING. 

I resisted  as  much  as  possible  the  demand 
for  English  teaching,  but  consented  to  do 
some  of  it,  with  the  understanding  that  it 
should  not  interfere  with  the  touring  work. 
As  a matter  of  fact,  nearly  every  evening 
saw  one  or  more  classes  gathered  at  our 
house  for  English,  which  I taught  when  I 
was  at  home,  Mrs.  Clark  and  Mother  Gulick 
generally  taking  them  when  I was  away.  A 
part  of  this  was  in  connection  with  a flour- 
ishing night  school  carried  on  there  for 
about  a year. 

THE  NEWSPAPER. 

Ever  since  going  to  Hiyuga  we  have  is- 
sued what  we  called  a “Monthly  News-Let- 
ter,” giving  items,  local  and  general,  of  in- 


10 


terest  to  the  Christians  of  Hiyuga,  and  with 
a view  to  awaken  and  maintain  interest  and 
mutual  sympathy  and  sense  of  oneness 
among  the  Hiyuga  Christians.  It  was  a 
mimiograph  issue  of  about  i8o  copies,  in 
Japanese  of  course.  A similar  one  was  is- 
sued by  the  Kumamoto  station  on  I he  west 
side.  These  proved  so  useful  that  about  a 
year  and  a half  ago  the  Kiyushu  Bukwai  (the 
Japanese  Congregational  Association  of  Ki- 
yushu) asked  that  the  two  be  united  and 
printed  as  a Kiyushu  paper.  After  consul- 
tation of  the  two  stations  it  was  decided  to 
do  this.  Kumamoto  was  not  in  condition  to 
look  after  it  then,  and  the  responsibility  of 
editing  and  publishing  the  paper  was  put 
upon  me.  We  made  it  usually  an  eight-page 
paper.  This  gave  us  another  excellent  evan- 
gelistic agency  ; and  with  my  good  Japanese 
helper  it  was  j)ossible  to  do  tl  is  in  addition 
to  our  other  work.  We  had  carried  it  through 
one  year  when  we  came  away.  Mr.  Gulick 
of  Kumamoto  also  came  with  us  and  there 
seemed  nothing  to  do  but  to  drop  the  paper. 
But  at  the  last  Bukwai  meeting  the  Japanese 
decided  to  take  it  up,  and  we  are  glad  to  see 
that  it  is  being  carried  on  in  its  old  form. 

THE  MISSION  HOUSE. 

Our  first  year  and  a half  in  Hiyuga  was 
spent  in  a very  uncomfortable  and  inconven- 
ient Japanese  house — the  best  to  be  had  at 
that  time.  But  in  Oct.,  1894,  our  mission 


II 


house  was  completed.  This  house  became 
not  only  a joy  and  convenience  to  the  mis- 
sionary family,  fully  appreciated  after  six 
years  in  Japanese  houses,  but  one  of  the 
best  means  we  had  of  spreading  the  Gospel 
message.  It  was  partly  foreign  in  style,  the 
only  one  of  its  kind  in  the  province  j and 
with  foreign  furniture  and  foreign  occupants, 
big  and  little,  it  became  one  of  the  things  to 
be  visited  by  people  who  came  to  Miyazaki. 
We  tried  to  treat  visitors  in  a Christian  way, 
encouraged  the  coming,  and  at  first  had  a 
few  special  days  with  special  invitations.  On 
no  day  were  we  without  some  such  visitors, 
and  on  some  days  there  were  a good  many 
scores  of  them,  especially  on  holidays  and 
at  festival  times.  The  route  of  the  sight- 
seers through  the  house  took  them  through 
the  parlor,  dining  room,  children’s  room,  and 
kitchen  (never  upstairs  except  on  very  rare 
occasions)  with  due  explanations  of  things 
seen.  The  organ  and  stoves  and  wire  mat- 
tress called  out  more  “ oh’s  ” and  “ah’s” 
than  anything  else.  Our  god-shelf  was  often 
asked  for,  i.  e.  the  shelf,  usual  in  Japanese 
houses,  where  the  household  idols  and 
charms  are  kept.  The  route  always  ended 
with  my  study  where  a good  supply  of  seats 
and  tracts  and  missionary  talk  were  kept 
and  each  individual  or  crowd  was  given  as 
much  of  Christianity  as  possible  by  talk  and 
printed  matter  to  take  home  with  him.  This 
was  generally  very  gladly  received,  and  re- 


12 


ceived  by  most  of  the  visitors  for  the  first 
time.  We  thought  the  interest  would  lessen 
as  the  newness  wore  off.  But  instead  it  in- 
creased and  came  to  require  nearly  the  whole 
time  of  one  person,  usually  a trusty  Japanese, 
to  show  the  visitors  around.  Such  visiting 
was  not  specially  conducive  to  continuous 
work  in  the  study  nor  to  the  privacy  of  home 
life.  But  it  gave  us  an  acquaintance  and 
welcome  and  seed-sowing  in  every  corner  of 
the  province  near  and  far,  and  opened  the 
way  for  visits  to  many  new  towns  and  homes. 
Probably  more  than  12000  people  have  thus 
visited  us  during  the  two  years  in  our  house. 

A LOANING  LIBRARY  AND  A READING  ROOM. 

A loaning  library  at  our  house,  very  much 
patronized,  was  another  means  of  reaching 
the  public.  Also  one  of  our  rooms  was  fitted 
up  for  a reading-room,  where  the  best  of  the 
Japanese  papers,  some  games,  etc.,  were 
kept,  and  which  became  a popular  resort, 
for  young  men  especially. 

Our  house  was  also  the  recognized  and 
often  used  place  for  all  sorts  of  social  and 
religious  gatherings  of  the  Miyazaki  Chris- 
tians. 

A KINDERGARTEN 

was  planned  for  at  our  house,  material 
bought  and  teacher  engaged,  and  kept  wait- 
ing nearly  a year  for  it.  But  redtape  and 
dignified  leisureliness  of  government  officials 


13 


prevented  its  real  beginning  before  we  came 
away. 

INDUSTRIAL  SCHOOL  FOR  WOMEN. 

A good  start  was  made  m the  development 
of  an  industrial  school  for  women.  We  took 
young  women  into  our  family  and  provided 
them  suitable  teaching  in  reading,  writing,, 
and  other  elementary  branches,  and  in  such 
work  as  weaving,  sewing,  knitting,  silk  rais- 
ing, cooking,  children’s  care,  and  the  like. 
We  asked  of  the  women  only  that  they  pro- 
vide themselves  (when  they  were  able  to  do 
so)  with  clothes  and  bedding,  and  we  under- 
took to  furnish  them  enough  work  to  pay  for 
their  board  (presumably).  We  hoped  to  turn 
these  girls  out  fit  to  be  good  wives  and  moth- 
ers in  Christian  Japanese  homes,  or  to  send 
them  on, — such  as  should  prove  to  be  suit- 
able,— to  higher  special  courses  of  study, 
like  those  of  the  Doshisha  Training  School 
for  Nurses,  or  the  Kobe  School  for  Bible  wo- 
men, or  the  Kindergarten  teachers’  training 
school  at  Kobe.  This  was  Mrs.  Clark’s  spe- 
cial enterprise.  Two  of  our  girls  were  mar- 
ried to  Christian  young  men  before  we  came 
away,  and  two  have  since  been  the  choice  of 
two  of  our  finest  Miyazaki  Christian  young 
men.  We  had  thus  admitted  ten  or  fifteen 
young  women  into  our  circle  and  had  them 
nicely  started  when  we  were  obliged  to  give 
up  our  much  loved  work  and  return  to  the 
home  land. 


14 


RETURN  TO  THE  UNITED  STATES  NECESSARY. 

Mrs.  Clark’s  mother,  Mrs.  L.  H.  Gulick, 
whose  whole  life  had  been  spent  on  foreign 
missionary  ground,  was  with  us  at  first  in  our 
Hiyuga  field.  Her  presence  and  counsel  in 
the  home  made  our  isolation  less  felt;  and 
her  experience  and  untiring  zeal  as  a mis- 
sionary made  her  indispensable  m the  gener- 
al work.  But  after  two  and  a half  years  with 
us  God  called  her  away  to  a better  home  and 
to  a larger  service.  The  care  of  her  during 
the  three  weeks  of  her  Severe  illness,  coming 
very  soon  after  the  birth  of  our  little  girl, 
and  the  added  burden  of  work  and  loneliness 
coming  later,  was  a strain  upon  Mrs.  Clark 
from  which  she  was  not  able  to  recover  her- 
self. And  last  fall  we  were  obliged  to  yield 
to  the  inevitable  and  return  to  this  country 
for  needed  rest  and  recuperation  for  her. 
This  was  not  a pleasant  thing  to  do.  Our 
work  and  our  people  had  become  very  dear 
to  us;  and  the  expressions  of  regret  on  the 
part  of  our  Hiyuga  people  showed  us  that 
this  regret  was  not  ours  alone. 

These  eight  years,  especially  the  last  four, 
have  been  very  happy  and  increasingly  busy 
years.  This  is  especially  true  of  the  past 
four  years.  One  factor  in  that  happiness 
has  been  the  assured  sympathy  and  prayers 
of  you  whose  missionaries  it  has  been  our 
privilege  to  be. 

We  reached  Oakland,  Cal.,  Nov.  13,  and 
have  remained  till  now  on  this  west  coast. 


15 

Mrs.  Clark  at  first  failed  in  health,  but  now 
seems  really  to  be  gaining;  and  we  are  hop- 
ing for  such  a recovery  as  will  enable  us  to 
return  after  a reasonable  vacation.  This  is 
our  greatest  desire  and  hope.  God  bless 
you  all.  Your  missionary, 

C.  A.  Clark. 

* ^ * 

[For  the  present,  Rev.  J.  H.  Pettee,  another  Amer- 
ican Board  missionary,  has  charge  of  Mr.  Clark’s 
field.  Mr.  Pettee  recently  wrote  to  Mr.  Clark  that 
the  situation  in  Miyazaki  is  most  hopeful.  The  na- 
tive evangelists  whom  they  employ  are  earnest  men, 
well  trained,  and  the  right  men  for  their  places.  He 
adds:  “One  of  my  pleasantest  occupations  has  been 
to  learn  how  strong  a hold  you  have  on  the  workers 
and  people  at  large.  You  may  well  take  great  satis- 
faction in  what  you  have  done  here.  It  falls  to  the 
lot  of  few  missionaries  to  stamp  themselves  indellibly 
upon  a whole  district  in  so  short  a time  as  you  have 
taken.  There  are  many  warm  inquiries  for  vou  and 
your  family.  You  need  fear  no  rival.  Your  place  is 
assured  forever  in  the  heart  of  Hiyuga.’’  The  work 
is  well  directed  during  Mr.  Clark’s  forced  vacation  in 
this  country,  and  awaits  expectantly  his  return  to  Ja- 
pan. Mrs.  Clai'k  has  gained  her  health  somewhat, 
and  will  be  in  Oberlin  with  her  husband  during  com- 
mencement. Their  many  friends  will  give  them  a 
glad  welcome. — Ed.] 


